Page 45 of A Wreck, You Make Me (Bad Boys of Bardstown #3)

“Her mother’s a bitch.”

“No arguments there.”

“So I’m going to have a security system put in place, cameras and alarms, everything,” I say because I have a feeling her mother might come around again. Just to fuck with her. There’s something about her that’s evil. And that’s saying something because I’ve lived with an abusive parent.

Conrad nods thoughtfully but before he can say something, Ledger chimes in, “Do you think he’ll come around? Dad.”

Out of all of us, Ledger and Stellan are the most similar to our father. It’s only fair Ledger would have that concern so I reply, “I don’t think so. If he wanted to make an approach, he would have. From what it sounds like, he’s completely under her mother’s thumb.”

Apparently, her mother and my father, started their affair when he was still with us.

He worked for a trucking company at the time that passed through different towns and that’s how they met.

The reason why our father left us abruptly after Callie’s birth was because of her mother.

Because she was threatening to out their secret when she realized he had another family.

Not that she would have because she loved her husband, Jupiter’s father, too much to go with another man.

All this to say, our father was a dumb moron who bought the threat and left.

Although honestly, he was probably happy to leave, given that he hated any kind of responsibility.

He just wanted an excuse for it. And then, her mother got pregnant with Snow.

They carried on their affair until they could get married a few years down the road.

And when they married, her mom made him promise he would never contact us.

That he would stay with them. And every time, he tried and only for money apparently, she would threaten him with things.

Fuck knows, what she had over him but whatever it is, it kept him away from us all these years even though we lived in the same town.

While it’s not really a loss, our father, disappearing from our lives, I’m glad we have an explanation.

“What do you think,” Callie begins hesitantly, looking at each of us, “he looks like now? Dad? I mean, I’ve only seen his photos and he’s been living here in this town for so long and?—”

“No,” Conrad says sternly.

“Fuck no,” Ledger adds.

“She never told us the truth because she was protecting us,” I say, my voice vibrating with anger.

“She didn’t want to drag us through bullshit, so she lived with bullshit herself.

She lived with him for years. She struggled for fucking years.

Alone. No one at her side to take care of her.

Our only job right now needs to be to make her feel welcome.

To make her feel she belongs here because she does, is that clear?

Which means you need to forget about our fucking dad and focus on her. ”

Callie blushes and nods. “Yeah, sorry. I shouldn’t have said that.”

Silence follows for a few seconds before Conrad begins with a deep breath, addressing the room at large, “I’m only going to say this once, so listen up.

Those two girls are our family now. I wish we’d known about them sooner, but it is what it is and we have to accept that.

Which means, as of tonight, they’re under my protection.

” Then he looks to me and adds pointedly, “ Jupiter is under my protection. I’m not sure what’s going on through your head right now, why you think you get to decide things when it comes to her, but I want to make it clear that if you hurt her in any way, you answer to me . ”

My only response is to clench my jaw and stand with my feet wide apart, ready to battle for her, as he continues, “I know you’re going through a lot of shit right now.

You like to pretend it doesn’t bother you, but it does.

Or Stellan and Isadora would be here tonight.

Or you wouldn’t still be playing like shit.

But that is not an excuse for you to hurt someone else.

Do you understand what I’m saying to you?

She is not one of the girls you pick up at a bar.

She is not someone you can use to amuse yourself.

“And this is for both of your good. Because this is going to get out, yeah? People are going to find out about them. That we have two new sisters, and given the kind of media attention you and your shithead brothers have attracted over the years, those two girls are going to be everywhere. And if it gets out that the bad boy Wrecking Thorn has a thing for his stepsister, you can kiss your season and maybe even your career goodbye. So again, you will stay away from her or you will answer to me.”

I watch Conrad for a few moments after he’s done, and he’s watching me back. I’m also aware that Ledger and Callie are watching both of us with rapt attention. Probably to see what I’m going to do.

Which is a good thing, because this way I have to say it only once too.

“We butt heads, you and me, but I respect you. A lot. Both as my big brother and my coach. You’re one of the best men I know.

I’d lay down my life for you. And so with all due respect, you stay the fuck out of my business.

You can boss me around as my coach and bench me if you like but I will be the one to decide things about her, because everything about her is my business.

She is my fucking business, and the only reason I’m not shutting this down right now is because we both have the same goal: to keep her safe.

” I move away from the railing then and start to walk away.

But then I pause and turn back to address the group in general. “And she’s not my fucking sister.”

With that, I turn around and resume walking away and enter the house and walk down the hallway.

I stop at one of the doors; my childhood room where I was crashing while I was in town.

I open the door and there she is, on the bed.

Her red hair fanned out on the pillow, her small form on her back and under the covers, sleeping.

She wanted to go home after her bitch of a mother left and she told us the rest of the story about how our parents met each other.

But Callie along with Tempest and Wyn convinced her to stay here.

Tomorrow morning, we’ll all go to the hospital together to see Snow.

Conrad was wrong. I don’t need to stay away from her, she needs to stay away from me.

Because these past three weeks that I was away from her, I realized something. When I’m with her, I can breathe. I can breathe easy . Which is so strange because I didn’t even know my breaths were difficult. That all my life I’ve been breathing like there’s something stuck in my throat.

With her, I can focus. I don’t hear the world’s bullshit about my game, about my comeback. Something I think I was starting to believe myself. I didn’t even realize it until I saw her belief in me. I don’t hear my siblings worry and their doubts over me, something that I never ever wanted.

When I’m with her, I feel free. And freedom is addictive.

She is addictive. And I’ve had a taste.

Which means I’ll do anything to have that taste again.

I’ll destroy everything in my path, go behind everyone’s back.

I’ll betray anyone. I’ll lie, cheat, steal, do any fucking thing to have her again.

To get to touch her, smell her. Watch her laugh and catch her shy smile.

To take things from her she isn’t willing to give and make her like it.

I’ll do anything to make her, mold her, bend her to my will.

But the thing is that’s all I can do.

I can take things from her like I did that night, use her, but I don’t have anything to give.

She calls me toxic, doesn’t she? She’s right.

I have poison in my veins. A never-ending bitterness, sourness, this growing restlessness that makes me want to stay away from my own twin brother.

That makes me unhappy and angry with my own family, isolated in my own family.

All because I fell in goddamn love once and don’t know how to get back up.

I don’t know how to get back up without her.

But I wouldn’t care about any of that, what I can or can’t give her, what she deserves. I’d just use her and use her and fucking use her until I’m done. Until all my pain is gone and I’m numb. Like the drug she is.

They call me the Wrecking Thorn because I’m a wrecking ball on the field, never stopping, never letting anyone stand in the way of my goal. But that’s not true anymore. I’m not the Wrecking Thorn because of my game. I’m the Wrecking Thorn because I’ll destroy everything in my path to get to her.

And that’s not a good thing for her.